Investigating Sex, Lies and Video in South Florida

Investigating Sex, Lies and Video in South Florida

FBI Special Agent Alexis Carpinteri and Miramar Police Detective Nikki Fletcher describe how two men used drugs, alcohol and promises of lucrative modeling contracts to deceive, rape, and video aspiring models.

Video Transcript

Fletcher: Mr. Flanders was contacting these victims on various modeling websites. And what he would do is he would pose as a talent scout or another female model and introduce himself and tell these young ladies that they could make up to six figures a year doing billboards and so forth. And that all they would have to do is come down here and do a test shoot.

Carpinteri: So the women would show up and go ahead and meet with the modeling scout as promised. They would do this commercial where they would ingest this alcohol that had been laced with a drug that was, that had the similar effects of a date-rape drug.

Fletcher: He would tell them that in order to do the audition that they would have to drink an alcoholic beverage while he was filming to make sure that they didn’t make any funny faces or do anything out of the ordinary.

Carpinteri: It rendered the victim very compliant. So they were agreeable to do the things that were being suggested to them. Once the drug had taken effect, that modeling scout then took them to a second location where they met up with a second gentlemen, a self-proclaimed porn star. At that point, that male would engage in sexual activity with those women. And the first gentleman would record the entire act.

Fletcher: We went to the FBI and asked them if, based on their resources, if they could probably help us with the situation that was going on because this incident was still being reported and it was still ongoing.

We did a multitude of things together—everything from search warrants to subpoenas to purchases. You name it. We spent probably a year of our life doing non-stop investigations.

Carpinteri: You have somebody that’s very successful in perpetrating this con, and then you have victims who a lot of them are young and excited and new in the industry and they hear exactly what they want to hear, what they’re being told.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime, they’re going to make it big in the business, and they’re hearing it from what they believe are other successful models.

So you have a little bit of the excitement and the naivety of these young ages and new in the business. And you have a very successful conman.